back in the saddle again...

We've arrived in Ponca City now. More off again, on again rain showers brought us in.

I rode again today! finally. People were glad to see me back on my bike, though my wrist/hand did not appreciate it much. I rode 45 miles of our 70 mile ride today so I'm getting there. David seems to have become my driving companion--or at least he's the leader driving while I've been riding shotgun thanks to his own ailments--and this morning, once i saw him, he made sure to give me grief for not riding in hte van with him again so I can give him all the directions. Riding in the van really isn't all that bad, just a little depressing when you come up on riders and see them doing it--no, rocking it-- and you wish you were out there too. But today i was so it's all okay.

The terrain was pretty great today (though the lay of the roads left a bit to be desired). We finally came out of some trees and made it into wide open spaces with low rolling hills, huge sight distances, and really low clouds. It was pretty awesome, especially because you can see the rain falling in the distance pretty far off. I cant say that I've ever seen that before now!

Cool sights of the day:
-a fair number of small scale oil derricks along the hills. I've never seen those up close either. All I really wanted to do was stop and watch them go up and down and try to figure them out, but my legs had other plans.
-AWESOME clouds. they were so low! and so varied in color. you could completely see which ones were about to drop rain, even if they were a couple miles away. I have this thing for skies and stars and those who know me well, know that i loved it.
-flooded creeks/rivers. These were not "cool" so much as they were just crazy to see. Every body of water we had passed had overrun its banks and was flooding farms, fields, and creek banks.

We had a wonderful welcome here at the First Lutheran Church (or at least the "Univ. of North Carolina Bike and Build" did...I love it when they welcome us on the church signs!); Beverly took care of us so well already. I think their vegetable lasagna may have been the best I've ever had in my entire life (I am, by no means, a connoisseur, but it really was excellent.)

I now have a number of things to do to get ready for bed/prepare for tomorrow. Buonanotte.

CVH